BURLINGTON, Vt. – Senior Sam Anderson picked the perfect time to notch the first hat trick of her career. Anderson’s third goal of the afternoon came in the 56th minute to break a tie and helped lift the Dartmouth field hockey team to a 3-2 victory Wednesday afternoon at Vermont.

For the Big Green, the win snapped a two-game skid and improved their record this season to 5-8. The Catamounts continued their rough 2013 campaign dropping to 0-16 with the loss.

Anderson scored two first-half goals, one in the eighth minute and another in the 24th to give the Big Green a 2-0 lead. That two-goal advantage was short-lived as Ashley McDonald pulled the home team to within one just six minute’s after Anderson’s second of the day.

Just eight minutes removed from halftime, Vermont finally pulled even with Emily Tilton knocking home her own rebound, tying the game at two apiece.

Despite holding a sizable 24-11 advantage in shots, it took the Green and White until 14:26 remaining in regulation to finally regain the lead. Anderson’s first game-winning goal of the season and third in the last two years was the result of a nice feed from sophomore Brooke Van Valkenburg on the far side, sliding a pass across the goalmouth to a waiting Anderson for the redirect.

Ali Savage and Maggie Scanlon picked up assists on the first two goals of the afternoon, their seventh and fourth helpers of the fall, respectively.

Ellen Meyer, the Big Green’s junior goalkeeper, posted six saves in the game with three coming in each half. UVM’s Stephanie Zygmunt had 15 saves in a losing effort at the other end of the field.

The final corners were in favor of the Big Green, 13-7, thanks in large part to an 11-2 second-half figure.

Dartmouth will be back in action on Sunday when it returns to Hanover and Chase AstroTurf Field for an Ivy League tilt against Columbia at 12 p.m. The contest will be a breast cancer awareness game with the players wearing pink.